teleportation and time-leaping, or to put it more simply, the ability to transport oneself instantly to another place and another time. Kazuo felt sure this could be done. He knew that the stimulants for teleportation had already been developed, and that time travel was already possible. All he needed to do was to find a way to incorporate all such capabilities in one stimulant.
After considerable experimentation, Kazuo found that by adding essence of lavender to the stimulant used for teleportation — known as Crox Zilvius — he could achieve the desired effect. And after many more trials and errors, he finally managed to blend exactly the chemical he needed.
All he needed to do then was to run an experiment to test the effect, which he decided to do himself in secret.
“That experiment was a big failure,” said Kazuo, scratching his head and laughing.
“You could leap across time. But when you wanted to leap back, you couldn’t. Is that right?” asked Kazuko.
“That’s right,” nodded Kazuo. “I didn’t know how effective the potion was going to be, so I drank a small amount. I was able to come here, into the past, but the potion was too weak to get me back to the future.”
“You should have brought the potion with you.”
“Yeah. I did think of that, and had it ready, but I forgot to bring it.”
“For someone so advanced, it’s quite surprising to see you still have a scatterbrain side.”
“That’s not it,” answered Kazuo with reddened cheeks. “I was thinking about which time to travel to, since I wanted a fairly peaceful time. But as soon as I thought of one, my mind initiated the time leap and I wasn’t holding the stimulant at the time.”
“So that’s why you became a student of this school, and that’s why you sneaked into the science lab?”
“That’s right. But then you walked in, surprised me and made me knock it over! Luckily, you didn’t drink the stimulant. But you did smell it, so it gave you powers to teleport and to time-leap, but in a limited manner.”
“Does that mean my powers will fade away with time?”
“That’s right, so you don’t have to worry so much.”
Kazuko was relieved. “So were you able to make the potion again?”
“Yes, I was.” Kazuo pointed at the bottle on the table, filled with brown, steaming liquid.
“But why are you explaining all of this to me?” asked Kazuko.
Kazuo thought carefully for a few moments before answering.
“Well, you seemed to be having such a hard time with the situation, so I felt that I owed you an explanation.”
“But from your point of view, I’m someone in the past. If you return to the future there will be no connection between us…”
Kazuo started to look rather sheepish, and his eyes dropped to the ground. Then he took a breath and glanced up to meet her eyes.
“Well, there’s a little more to the story than that,” he said. “You see, Kazuko, I’ve… I’ve fallen in love with you.”
PEOPLE OF TOMORROW, PEOPLE OF TODAY
“I guess confessing their love is not such a big thing for people in the future, huh?” said Kazuko, playfully. She knew he was a university student, but the fact that she was older than him in years gave her the confidence to make a joke.
“So do you like older girls?” she quipped.
“That’s right, I guess in a sense you are older,” said Kazuo, who hadn’t thought about that until now.
“Oh you guess, do you?” said Kazuko, a little offended. “Well, I am older. I may be just a person from the past in your eyes who is both physically and mentally underdeveloped, but I can’t help that, and yes, I am older.”
“That’s not what I meant, Kazuko,” pleaded Kazuo. “I just don’t think of you as being older, that’s all. Maybe it’s because, I don’t know how to explain it, but it could be because we’ve been studying for a while in the same class together, having fun times together — you, Goro and me. So I feel very close to you now. Like I’ve known you for a lot longer. That’s why I’m guessing I fell in love with you.”
Kazuko felt her cheeks flush a little. No one had ever said out right that they loved her like this. He was just so direct, and Kazuko wondered if perhaps everybody would be like that in the future. For Kazuko, however, love was something quite new. She’d read about it in romantic novels, and there had been playground gossip about other kids falling in love. But it was always something people were teased about — as if it were something to be ashamed of. She’d felt such uncomfortable feelings when Mariko had teased her about liking Goro. But then, Kazuko had always felt that the boys her age were so immature, so she couldn’t really imagine having any romantic feelings for them. But now Kazuo was confessing his feelings for her, and it wasn’t a joke. It had thrown her completely off balance, and she didn’t know what to say. So instead she just stayed silent and kept her eyes fixed on the ground.
“It’s like you’ve known me for a lot longer,” said Kazuko to herself, in a daze.
“That’s right. That’s how I feel,” Kazuo said, smiling. “But the time we actually spent together was just a month.”
“Just a month?” Kazuko looked up in surprise and shook her head vigorously. “That can’t be! We’ve known each other for a really long time. It’s been… two years. Even before that, we weren’t really on talking terms, but I’ve known you since elementary school. I mean, we live in the same neighbourhood!”
“Ah, of course. I forgot to tell you.”
“Forgot to tell me what?”
“I gave you, or rather everyone around me, false memories about myself.”
“False memories?” Kazuko didn’t understand.
“Yes. I actually arrived here about a month ago. But to be able to fit in here comfortably, I had to make it seem as if I’d been here for a long time. So I made a false history about myself and gave it to a lot of people as memory.”
“Unbelievable! So you gave those memories to me, to Goro, Mr Fukushima, to Mariko…”
“Yes. Everyone in our class and all the other people who should know me.”
“But how were you able to do such a thing?”
“It’s not as difficult as you might think. You know about hypnosis, right? If you get someone under hypnosis and tell them they’re a bird, they will actually believe that. What I did was similar to that, although the technology involved is much more advanced. Plus, hypnosis is easier to achieve with a big group rather than just one person. It works like a sort of chain reaction, with one person’s belief rapidly spreading to the next and so on.”
Kazuko had heard something like this from Mr Fuku-shima. “Group Hypnosis…”
“Right. I did something similar to what you’re describing. In my experience the people of this time are extremely prone to hypnosis.”
MEETING KEN SOGOL
“So that’s how I started my life here — as someone who’d been around for a while. I made it so that I was already a student here who had been living in that house for a long time…”
